No-one's Empire

Mankind has reached for the stars and taken them, but what one man has another wants. And he takes. The expanding human empire has been crippled by a galaxy-wide war that has shaken faith in all dominant powers. In the wake of this great conflict large portions of known space have gone dead, and the victorious Union is crumbling. Ex-soldier, Janus, joins a crew of scavengers tracking down and recycling missing warships. All of his time and training put towards combat, his knowledge of warships is his only remaining useful talent. But although the war is over, peace is still a distant dream.
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Janus was standing by what could easily be mistaken for a window
had it not been suspended from the ceiling, meters from the cold
metal wall. In reality it was a high resolution tactical monitor,
displaying a live feed from an external camera. There was a star
comparatively closer than the one in Janus' home system, but
closer still was a large, revolving, gaseous ball surrounded by
thirteen rings. They were close enough to see that the orbiting
rings consisted of rocks, and that each ring was a different
colour. The image began to shift slightly and Janus knew that it
meant the ship was rotating. He folded his hands behind his back
and twisted the ring on his left hand.

"Hey boys, we're taking position," he said without taking his
eyes off the screen. "We should be able to see the wreck any
second."

His update was then confirmed by the automated alert system; an
out-dated, electronic female voice. It said "Attention:
Operations Room. Primary target approaching optical range," and
then it repeated the message.

There was a screech of metal on metal, followed by another, and
another. Janus cringed and put his hands over his ears, stumbling
away from the screen and the monstrous metallic man approaching
him backwards, dragging his boots on the floor. Every inch of the
suit was airtight, and it was bulletproof in as many places as
possible. Across the high, heavily fortified shoulders, the words
"Spaghetti Bob" were scrawled in yellow paint. Suddenly Bob
raised himself up onto the toes of one boot and spun, planting
his feet firmly on the floor with one hand raised and the other
on his triangular crotch piece, thrusting his pelvis forward and
screeching in a high tone.

"I swear to god, Bob, as soon as my suit's on!" The voice
emanated from the mouth of a dark skinned, bearded man in the
centre of the room with a finger outstretched accusatorily in
Bob's direction.

"Bring it on, Raj," Bob said and began towards the man, reaching
his monstrous mechanical arms forward as if to grab him, but
stoping at the last minute and flicking him instead. Bob laughed.

"Oh, real funny, Bob. Real funny. Just you wait." And with that,
a panel in the floor slid open and a thick metallic case came up
to fill the space. The cover had not even finished opening before
Raj was inside, harnessing himself into the machine he would wear
as a suit. Green lights lit up along the case at once and Raj
hurled himself upwards with mechanical strength and lifted Bob's
foot out from under him. He fell heavily to the floor. Raj
chuckled and shrugged as the chest of his suit closed, securing
him inside its hardened shell.

Bob got to his feet in a flash and pranced nimbly on his toes,
arms raised like a boxer.

"You two are the most horrifying clowns I've ever seen," Janus
interjected, approaching the centre of the room to wait for his
suit.

"Shut it, map boy," Raj spat, his eyes on the circling Bob. "We
can do this job without you, you know."

"No we can't," came a voice from the only doorway. The man, for
his gender was evident in his voice, stood with a shadow cutting
diagonally across his neck, leaving his face lost in darkness.
His identity, however, was clearly labelled across the left
breast of his grey singlet as Vincent Drave. On either side skin
and muscles bulged outwards and down towards gigantic hands, one
of which clasped a wooden clip board. There was a long, wooden
crutch wedged into his left arm-pit and he leant most of his
weight upon it.

The two metal hulks immediately dropped their stances at the
sound of the voice and stood up straight, revealing the true
height of their suits.

"He knows his way around these things. He's a valuable, so play
nice," Vince said. "Janus, suit up."

The floor opened and a new case rose up. Janus climbed in and
buckled the harness, and as he did so the alert system chimed out
again.

"Yeah, I see it," Vince said loudly, turning to look at the
monitor. "Ain't she a beauty."

"Whoa," Bob said. "Hey Raj, you ever seen anything like that?"

Raj moved closer to the monitor.

"Bloody hell," he said, his jaw hanging open.

Janus pulled himself out of the case, the chest piece closing as
he approached the screen. In the midst of the asteroid rings was
the long, grey hull of a large old warship. It had a flat top
interrupted periodically by antennae and the bridge, which seemed
to have been added as an afterthought. Its sides were smooth and
curved inwards at the bottom, but it was the front that had them
all in awe. It was like an open mouth, stretched wide in a
perfect circle and reaching deep inside the hull, almost
hollowing the entire ship.

"Forty-second generation Shonu-Messa frigate," he said.

Raj turned to look at him with his mouth open, ready to speak,
but he stopped. His eyes widened and a smirk grew on his face.
Bob kept his face away, but his suit began bouncing a little and
the sound of suppressed laughter was growing. Raj began to
chuckle too.

"These hulls are pretty rare in themselves, but this... um...
this one..." Janus' eyes were flicking from the screen to Raj and
back again. "Sorry Raj, what's so funny?"

Bob risked a glance at Janus, then lost control. He doubled over
with laughter.

"No, nothing," he said finally, then after a pause, "Fairy man."

They both lost their composure and laughed loudly. Vince turned
on his good leg and looked at Janus. The dark metal of his suit
was patterned with sparkling swirls in pink and purple, and
protruding from the shoulder-blades was a pair of white, fluffy
fairy wings.

"Not bad, Bob. Not bad," Vince said. "Janus, you look lovely.
Now, can we all pay attention to the matter at hand?"

"Yes sir, sorry," Bob snickered.

"Janus?"

"As I was saying, these are rare enough," Janus continued in an
irritated tone. "They only came about towards the end of the
war."

"That's right. They escorted capital ships," Vince added, eyeing
Bob and Raj, who were still smirking.

"Most of them, yes. But a few were modified. Do you know of the
Wraiths of Tokyo Nine?"

"Whoa, the wraiths?" Raj asked. "Is this a wraith?"

"It is. They stripped the insides bare; all they used was the
hull. No shields, no flak, no scramblers or guidance systems. No
defences whatsoever, yet they're impossible to destroy because
you just can't hit the bastards. They jump in, fire, and jump
out. All you get is three seconds. There's nothing in there but a
jump system, a massive generator and a jumbo Particle Agitator.
One of those cruiser guns. Punches a hole right through all our
armour. They had only six of these at Tokyo Nine. It's the only
place we ever saw them."

Bob and Raj were staring at the screen listening, their giggles
long forgotten. The Tokyo Nine incident was famous in every
colony because no-one knew what really happened.

"So..." Raj began.

"You were at Tokyo Nine?" Bob finished.

Janus glanced at Vince. "Yes, I was. That's why I'm here now.
That gun uses a shit load of energy, and they were only
experimental. Four of them failed and lost power, one right
outside the Tokyo. I was a block soldier on the boarding party.
It was a mess inside."

"And that is why we need him," Vince said. "He knows the layout.
He knows the dangers. Particle Agitators use a very unstable
substance called Luschadium. When we get inside, we all do
exactly what he says. Bob, that means no more dancing. Now, I've
got to go put my legs on."

Vince lay his crutch down and awkwardly climbed into the case,
while Bob and Raj almost tripped over each other trying to get to
the door. Janus stared at the shipwreck on the monitor. He stared
down the barrel of the ship-killer and muttered "Tokyo Nine" to
himself.

He would never forget that day. The battleship had been running a
rear-guard action to keep the heavy ships away from the
transports. By the time the fleet had arrived in the Helsinki
system the planet had been besieged for a week. There was a
harrowing and bitter battle before they were able to secure a
clear path for the evacuation, and the plan was enacted so fast
that civilians and military gear were mixed across the ships,
making them all fair targets. Janus' squad had boarded five
different vessels during the assault, and as a block soldier he
was first through the breach. In addition to the standard
boarding equipment, block soldiers also carry a large reinforced
shielding plate. They resembled very large doors, and his job was
to draw the enemy's fire until either they were defeated or he
was dead. The block soldiers had the highest casualty rate of the
boarding parties, but reduced squad loses by 34.7%. After the
boarding zone was secured, the squad planted a high-powered
explosive device and evacuated with as much as they could carry.
The Helsinki battle was the first time Janus' squad had made
consecutive assaults without returning to their carrier, and the
fiercest fighting he had ever seen. His boots had become slippery
with blood and hydraulic fluid, and each time he fired his weapon
the recoil forced him back an inch.

Once the battle was over, the remaining fleet was spaced along
the transport line to escort the survivors, the Tokyo Nine and a
handful of light frigates at the back. For five days the ships
remained on high alert, with enemy frigates and destroyers
hanging on the edge of their sensor range. They were almost
behind the front line when the wraiths attacked, and it took them
only fifteen minutes to rip the Tokyo Nine to shreds. It was a
devastating loss.

"Must've been hell," Vince said, striding up beside him in his
robotic chassis.

"It was the end of the war for me. They couldn't make me fight
after that." He turned to Vince. "But right now, I need the
money. Let's get to it."